Pool Wall Blown Down

by Michelle Johnson
(Nancy, KY)

My poor husband has been trying to get this 27ft above ground pool installed that was given to us. The ground has been ready, the sand was delivered, and my husband was putting the walls up and had started leveling out the sand in the bottom when all of the sudden a storm came up. We thought the wall was secure enough but it ended up falling down in places. The wind ended up blowing almost the whole thing down.

There are a few creases in the pool wall now. None that are completely bent just what looks like some dents. Is the pool still safe to install? We have been fighting to get this thing up all summer!!! If it hasn't been one thing it has been another! We just need to know if it is safe or not. Thank you for your time.

Hi Michelle. Your pool wall should be just fine. You would not believe how many times I have been called in to finish the installation after something like this has happened. Around here we have a monsoon season, and it has blown down many an above ground pool. That's when I get called with someone saying "fix it, please."

You start by rolling the wall up. Roll it up as tight as you can get it, most of the time this process will straighten the wall up and remove all the kinks. In worse case scenarios I lay the wall out on concrete and pound the creases out, but I seldom have to do this.

Before trying to reinstall the wall be sure to make sure the rail is perfectly round and perfectly level. Check all the rail connector gaps also, these are easily altered when the wall is banging around in the breeze.

During the heat of the season I install 3 to 4 pools a day, seven days a week. We are booked out weeks in advance and have no time for wind or rain delays. We have learned how to keep working through most any weather condition.

The most important thing we do is never leave a sidewall unsecured. Our entire building process insures we never have a pool wall that is not supported with uprights and top rails for more than just a few rails at a time.

I have many pages on this site showing how I assemble pools and install liners. It all works something like this. As the wall is going up my crew is installing uprights and top rails, just about as fast as I am unrolling the wall and putting it into the bottom rail. The liner gets stretched in over top of the pool structure. When the water is close to the edge we start the process of taking the top rails off, tucking the liner, and reinstalling the rails. A few rails come off at the same time a few are being installed; no more than a few are ever off at one time.

Anytime I have a whole wall up with no support I become a very nervous fellow, it just takes a small breeze and it will blow over. This is a situation I find myself in very seldom. There are only a few reasons why I would ever have a wall standing that was not supported by the pool framework, or at least pool rods securely taped over the sidewall. These are few are far in between.